Your Word is my Command: Amazon’s Alexa vs. “Hey, Google”

Ten years ago we wouldn’t have thought that magical furniture straight out of a fairytale like the “mirror” in Snow White, would ever become reality. But thanks to Amazon and Google, voice-activated smart assistants are slowly infiltrating our lives — even the utmost private (insert toilet flushing sound). From bathroom and vanity mirrors to talking lawnmowers, motorcycle helmets, and decorative driftwood, the on-going smart assistant war between Big Tech companies such as Google and Amazon has taken a dazzling turn in recent years.

The biggest tech expo of the year, the CES 2019 in Las Vegas, proved that smart-gadgets are more ubiquitous than ever — and Amazon’s Alexa is still the market leader. Whereas Google expanded the amount of showroom space to a two-story ad hoc building and five-car rollercoaster in the parking lot. Albeit lesser efforts on taking up ground, Amazon showed its canny approach by showcasing hundreds of products reacting to the command “Alexa!” from the company itself and other third-party vendors in the ballroom of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Even though Microsoft’s Cortana and Samsung’s Bixby are also part of the competition, they were virtually nowhere to be found this year’s tech event.

“It’s been an incredible pace of change,” acknowledges Robin Murdoch, global managing director of software and platforms at Accenture. “This year, people are just expecting that voice will be integrated into everything. It’s absolutely everything. But if you step back three years, it [voice] was barely here.”

Only days before the kickoff to the CES 2019, Amazon announced over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices sold. In contrast, Google has around 1 billion people connected to its “Hey, Google”-activated assistant through Android and iOS devices and Google Home speakers as well as third-party gadgets — up from 500 million since May. Even though the numbers might speak for Google, based on purchases for the smart-assistant alone, Amazon still has the biggest market share with 67% at the end of 2018. That is more than twice of Google’s market share. Why you might ask? Because nobody really buys their Android-smartphone for the purpose of using the Google Assistant, but rather for the operating system, where most Android-smartphones come with the mandatory capability to talk back.